The Background
When I started writing FY fanfic, I ran into a teensy little problem. I can't stand Miaka. Even when I'm watching the videos, I tend to tune out anything that involves her. I know, I know, she's a sweet person with a lot of good qualities, not to mention the main character, but that doesn't eclipse the fact that she's an utter airhead. I found I couldn't enjoy writing things that involved the Suzaku no Miko, and you might guess that cuts down the possibilities a bit. Then I started reading Kiri and Hikaru's Someone Else's Life, which if you haven't read it is a long, wonderful fic in which Hotohori is actually female (Nuriko's opposite!) and it occured to me that "Hey...that's what being a fanfic writer is, you can change whatever you want." (I should've already known that; I've been rewriting episodes of The X-Files for years.) So I decided to create a new Miko. This is not self-inclusion (I have one of those coming, but it's insane and corny and just for fun), and I'm by no means trying to make a "perfect" character. Just one that's a little more mature, and doesn't drive me nuts.
The Story
The concept started with "Who else could be pulled into the book?" It moved on from there, because if Yui remained the Seiryuu no Miko, a lot of the quintessential conflict is impossible without Miaka. So I brainstormed with my friend Ryan, who finally gets a little credit (hey, he's the one who introduced me to FY, after all!) and we came up with this. Yui found the Shijin Tenchi Sho and got sucked in, alone with Miaka, who was following her around the library. Unfortunately they got dropped off in different areas--I guess Seiryuu just didn't want the little whiner, but couldn't be troubled to send her all the way back. Akane, the newest librarian at the National Library, gets sucked in when she goes in the reference room to tidy up after them. One dynamic of the story is dissolved when there's nobody reading the book on the other end, but we even figured out how to make that serve a purpose.
And of course the Yui-Miaka conflict. That seemed prickly for a while, then poof! It added a whole new idea and changed everything again. After all, if Miaka went into Kutou for Yui by herself, figuring she was safe, and Yui was already Seiryuu no Miko...then wouldn' t she be likely to assume that Miaka was her Konan counterpart? Enter a severe case of mistaken identity that lets Yui and Miaka keep fighting over Tamahome, gives the other characters excuses to do some of the other things they need to do for plot, and even gives Miaka a bit of depth as she struggles to do her part to save her friends, not get killed, and get herself home. (And if you are a Miaka-lover, take heart--when Akane promises her and Tamahome, "I will make everything all right for you," she means it.) Finally it was becoming substantially more than just substituting one name for another through the story.
The Miko
Nen Akane is a 23-year-old librarian at the National Library in Tokyo. She's a bookworm (who, incidentally, went to high school at Jonan) and graduated at the top of her university class. She has a few friends but not close ones, and no family--her estranged father is a widower and hasn't kept in contact with her since high school. She ended up more like Hotorhori than we anticipated--responsible, caring, and lonely, which is probably why she accepts so readily that she's been transported to another world, and why she so quickly calls Konan "home." She's mature, if dreamy, and...well, we already wrote the ending, and there's fire there.
The Future
So this is our indulgence. We've already written some of the best scenes as they occured to us, though they're subject to change as the story takes on life of its own, as all stories do. We even know what happens after it's over. So, want to see Nuriko finally find true love? Chichiri obsessed? A priestess who's slowly going insane? A love-polyhedron that rivals A Midsummer Night's Dream, or a spell shattered by a teardrop? Then suspend the plot for a while, let change happen, and read on....
~Ashura and Ryuuen